Brazen Careerist Appreciates You {Ryan Paugh}

A lot of people ask me what it’s like working at Brazen Careerist during a big launch.  I never know exactly what I should say.  Mayhem isn’t the right word.  But, it’s the first word that comes to mind.

Today we launched the new-and-improved BrazenCareerist.com—a career management tool for next-generation professionals.  In an online space that’s becoming more competitive every day, I’m one part exhilarated, two parts scared to death.

The weeks leading up this—our biggest launch yet—looked like lunacy.  We must have changed our press release 47 times, our landing page … at least a dozen.

When you’re utterly immersed in something, you’ll do pretty much anything it takes to make it perfect.  And we’re pretty confident that we did our best.

Today, I’m pretty thankful.  I’m thankful that the site’s up, and that even though we may experience downtime, glitches, technical difficulties and beyond, we’ve gotten farther than most Internet startups even dream.   And, we couldn’t have gotten here without you.

Almost two years ago, when Ryan Healy, Penelope Trunk and I started building Brazen Careerist, I thought I made a mistake.  I quit my job and moved cross-country to a place I never thought I’d be:  Wisconsin.

We had no direction, no reasonable way to make any money, and we fought…a lot.

I can’t even tell you how many times I thought about quitting.  Twice a day even, I’d have my bags halfway packed.  My family and friends back in New Jersey were waiting for me, but you all gave us a reason to keep moving forward.

What got me through the worst days was having a community of people that believed in us every step of the way.  I chose Samantha’s Appreciate Revolution series as a way to say thanks, because I know that the majority of people reading this are people who have given our team support when we needed it the most.  So, thank you.

I know that many of us will never meet in person.  We’ll never have an opportunity to share a couple of beers (though I’ve been pretty lucky to do that with some of you).  Still, I’m appreciative of the amount of yourselves you have all been willing to share with us through Brazen Careerist.  I don’t know of any other community on the Web that’s been more generous than each of you.

Today we’re celebrating at Brazen Careerist HQ.  We may be celebrating amidst an array of downtimes and fickle glitches with the new site, but it’s still a party.  And we hope that a part of you is partying too.

Thanks for being a part of everything we’ve done so far on Brazen Careerist.  It’s been a pretty awesome journey.  We hope you’ll continue to enjoy the ride with us.

Appreciative Revolutionary: Ryan Paugh (@paughginney)

Bio: Ryan is the Co-Founder and Community Manager for Brazen Careerist, a career management tool for next-generation professionals. Outside of work he enjoys all of the finer things in life: tacos, margaritas, hammocks, etc. Basically anything that reminds him that even though the Internet is fun, the real world is truly where it’s at. If you want to connect, the best way is through his profile on Brazen Careerist. He spends most of his day talking to BC members and helping them get the most out of being part of the Brazen World.

Favorite ice cream flavor: Strawberry

I appreciate Ryan’s enthusiasm, drive, and commitment to fostering the best possible Gen Y community!

Tagged as: Appreciation, being thankful, bloggers, Brazen Careerist, Gen Y, Networking, Social Media